No point reserving seats with BA - they steal them back!

[ajandjjmum]

DS moved to Australia on Monday, and we had reserved - and paid over £70 - for a specific seat in economy.

He was stopped at the boarding gate and told that his seat had been changed, despite him having a copy of the receipt and confirmed seat number with him.

The BA woman lied and said that he was still in an 'extra legroom' seat - he wasn't - he was in a standard row of three.

The seat he paid for was given to a 'silver' tier member of the exec club at no charge - DS is merely 'blue'.

DS was polite and understanding to the crew (more than I would have been), and accepted that on a full flight they could do nothing.

Four days later, BA haven't replied to any of the three emails, other than a generic 'holding' email - clearly don't give a monkeys.

I know the reservation of seats is something that is often discussed on this board, particularly in relation to the lower cost airlines. Just thought others might be interested to know that a paid reservation obviously means nothing to BA - the theft of which is obviously covered in the small print! So much for being the national flag carrier (yes, I know it's Spanish now!)

Such a shame BA have sunk so low. They used to offer such great service. What a disgrace you had to wait so long for your money back. Should have been a simple refund. Maybe they think that £70 would bankrupt them....

Ok it's in the terms and conditions but its still shitty practice.
"Oh look this person gives us more money than you so we are going to take what you've paid for and give it to them. Sure we will give you your money back if you chase us and don't mind waiting until we can be arsed"
If this happened anywhere else there would be uproar.
If you ordered your christmas food from M&S, and then they sold it to someone with a sparks card with more points on it or whatever, but it was in the ToC, and your deposit would be refunded eventually, people wouldn't stand for it.

BA are a disaster area. Expensive, terrible service, and a really unpleasant attitude across the board. I avoid them wherever possible but the one time I had to fly with them in the last couple of years, I had my data hacked and had to replace my credit card. Never again.

Ditto, @noodlezoodle

I refuse to travel BA now. Their customer service is non existent and their planes are getting older and seats are getting less comfortable compared to the competition.

I’ve been caught out with faulty entertainment systems and seat changes before. Now I use Qantas. I have had one shitty flight attendant with them on about 16 or so flights. On British Airways it was closer to one per flight.

Forgot to see - email them again asking them to escalate to a supervisor as they have charged you for something you did not receive. I had to do that last time (which coincidentally (not) was the last time I flew with them). I got some Avios I was able to spend on Qantas instead.

It’s likely the Silver Member was downgraded from Business if it’s a full flight. BA will refund your son’s seat booking it’ll just just a while as it’s peak season right now.

I flew with them recently and I was sat on the back row so heard the flight attendants bitching away. One bitched about the fact someone had asked for a lid that fit on a take away-type cup, and just as the plane was descending one made the point to the others that they were now going to give out the little cups of water for those who had asked ages ago.

It's frustrating but hardly a drama that needs an email to the CEO.

On the contrary, the CEO needs to know about this sort of issue. Other factors apart, this has generated a thread which is frankly a disaster area for BA, and it's on a website read by millions. Any responsible CEO would want to know.

What you have to remember is that BA is not the same airline it was 10 years ago. They effectively outsourced it when they made all the IT people who had been there years redundant a few years ago. It is now a managed service run mainly out of Asia. It was that or go bust. Customer service has massively suffered as a result. I've also stopped using them for long haul as the experience of being an economy passenger on one of their planes if grim. There are far better options out there for the same or cheaper price.

In business it is different, of course, as they have retained the service there as it accounts for most of the income that keeps them afloat. But the difference in the way they treat business and economy passengers is just shocking. Obviously if you pay more you get more room, better food, more personal service etc, but is shouldn't be the case that you are only spoken to politely if you are in business. This is the case now on BA. I have very recent experience of 2 flight legs were I was upgraded after take off and both times the instant switch from rude and dismissive, treating people like actual cattle, to polite, helpful and licking my arse actually disgusted me.

Read what she put - Op said they said they WOULD refund the money, but would not offer a GOODWILL gesture of any kind. So I'm assuming she asked for something on top of the refund.

Dh flies long haul for business purposes every few weeks. He is six foot four and always books premium economy if available, or extra legroom economy seats. (He doesn’t book business class because it’s his own company and he’s a tight arse he’s got his eye on the budget). He is constantly getting bumped off these seats, much to his annoyance. It has happened with all the airlines he has flown with. Except BA, funnily enough.

Refunds always come through eventually. I’m not surprised you didn’t get a goodwill gesture though; this is such a regular occurrence that was never going to happen.

Yes but she hasn't confirmed that she's had a refund yet.